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Google Accused of Demonetizing iPhone X Videos on YouTube

Some even talk about a “get the Google Pixel” conspiracy

Nov 6, 2017 13:19 GMT  ·  By
Videos flagged with demonetization icon if they discuss iPhone X
   Videos flagged with demonetization icon if they discuss iPhone X

The iPhone X is the hottest tech topic of the month after Apple started shipping the device to customers on November 3, so it makes sense for YouTube to be flooded with videos showing hands-on, unboxing, or tests with the new model.

But as some popular YouTubers have discovered, their iPhone X videos have suddenly been demonetized, meaning that they’re not generating any revenues (or generating lower revenues), with few to no ads being displayed whatsoever.

Marques Brownlee (also known as MKBHD), Jonathan Morrison (TLD), Safwan Ahmedmia (SuperSaf), and Casey Neistat have also confirmed that ads aren’t displayed on their iPhone X videos because they were flagged as “not suitable for most advertisers.”

It goes without saying that there’s little reason not to display ads in these videos because they don’t seem to violate YouTube guidelines in any way, but demonetizing clips appears to be a growing problem on the video sharing platform lately with more and more publishers experiencing it.

Google hasn’t offered a reason why some iPhone X videos are being demonetized, so it was obviously just a matter of time, until the hardcore Apple fans flagged this as a conspiracy in order to drive more people towards the Google Pixel 2.

“Not suitable for most advertisers”

While there’s absolutely no evidence this is the reason and it can hardly be a method to boost sales of the Pixel 2, the YouTube guidelines don’t seem to provide a good explanation why the videos got demonetized:

“If the content of a video you uploaded is identified as not suitable for advertisers, you'll see a yellow dollar sign next to the video. You'll also get an email to the email address associated with your YouTube account,” Google explains adding that videos could be flagged if they aren’t “considered suitable for all brands” or they do not meet the criteria for advertiser-friendly content.

The first of the two is the one that makes a bit more sense, but in the past, this requirement did not affect iPhone videos and doesn’t impact all iPhone X clips currently on YouTube.

The company, however, adds that some updates to its filters have already been made, recommending YouTubers who believe the videos have been mistakenly classified as not suitable for most advertisers to appeal the decision.

“We recently released an update to our monetization classifier to reduce videos being misclassified as "not suitable for most advertisers." While this update reduced misclassifications for videos all across YouTube, it may have caused some green icons to turn yellow,” Google says.